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How Facebook’s new Reactions will affect your business page

As you've no doubt seen, Facebook now allows its users to do more than just "like" Facebook content.

Facebook recently launched its much-anticipated Reactions worldwide. Now, when users hover over the "like" button, they can select from a much wider range of emotions. Users can choose from five new emojis: Love, Haha, Wow, Sad and Angry.

You may notice the much requested "dislike" button did not make the cut — and probably never will. In 2014, Mark Zuckerberg said, "Some people have asked for a dislike button because they want to be able to say, 'That thing isn’t good.' That's not something that we think is good. We're not going to build that."

Instead, Facebook Reactions allow users to quickly express the most common emotions and comments expressed on Facebook. Plus, Instagram found that 40 percent of all text posted to Instagram contains at least one emoji.

Facebook is officially embracing and integrating the emoji into their platform. This new addition will without a doubt affect how your brand monitors content. Facebook Reactions may even change the type of content you post.

Reactions are here! We're excited to officially announce even more ways to celebrate, sympathize, admire and love. They're right behind the Like button. Just press, hold and enjoy.

1. More data = better content

For digital marketers, more data is always a positive. With Reactions, you will get a tally of how many likes, shares, clicks and reactions your post receives.

When you click on your Facebook Page Insights and select a specific post, you reveal a specific breakdown of how many Reactions your post got. The most interesting aspect of this data will be the correlation between each Reaction and post clicks.

For example, you could discover that posts that elicit the "Wow" reaction drive more traffic than other Reactions. Now, that's data you can use to create better-performing content.

2. Test differentiated content

If you want your brand's Facebook post to get seen, your best bet is to evoke an emotional response. Researchers at the Wharton Business School found there's a strong relationship between emotion and viral content.

Positive content is more likely to go viral than negative — as you may have guessed. Posts that cause a strong response, such as awe, laughter or surprise are more likely to be shared. Most surprising, however, was that the strongest forecaster of virality was the amount of anger the message evoked.

Most brands often want every social post to be positive, so customers associate their brand with positive emotions. Yet, other emotions — especially anger and surprise — can cause content to be shared, seen and even clicked more.

This month, go ahead and experiment. Post different types of content specifically meant to evoke Reactions.

3. Reactions to alter news feed algorithm

Facebook announced its Reactions will eventually alter the content seen in users' news feeds: "Over time, we hope to learn how the different Reactions should be weighted differently by News Feed to do a better job of showing everyone the stories they most want to see."

In essence, users who prefer "sad" or "surprising" posts will be shown more of those posts — and less of posts that elicit other Reactions.